Free agency doesn't begin for NFL teams until next month. But it's never too early to start thinking about what players at which positions could be possible targets for the Jets and Giants once the doors to the free-agent market swing open.

More than half of the players on the Giants' roster are free agents. So they have plenty of spaces to fill and a good chunk of money to spend. How general manager Jerry Reese decides to allocate his resources, only he knows right now.

The Jets have plenty of salary-cap space to work with, and while there's no telling what they intend to do with all that money, they do have some glaring needs.

We're here to provide our best educated opinions by ranking the free agents by position, and deciding which could be of interest to the local teams. We'll be rolling these out by position over the course of several days.

Dom Cosentino's take on the Jets: About a month ago, I had done a more pared-down list (in no particular order) of quarterbacks who could be of interest to the Jets. It was more of a primer for the one you see above, which is better-researched and also has each player listed in order of strength.

Now, the Jets are in an unusual position when it comes to the QBs. On one hand, they have Geno Smith, who gained valuable experience by starting all 16 games as a rookie and took his lumps (not all his fault) before showing some improvement at the end of the season. On the other hand, the Jets aren't yet ready to declare Smith as their quarterback of the future. So they're likely going to want a backup plan.

Re-working Mark Sanchez's contract to hang onto him is another possibility, but by all indications, the Jets and Sanchez seem to be ready to part ways. That leaves us with the list of guys you see above, though the Jets could also get someone in the draft, even in one of the later rounds. Whoever they bring in will be insurance in case Smith falls flat on his face; it's not like the Jets are going to pick up someone this offseason in the the hope that someone will become a franchise quarterback. Heading into next season, they do have bigger needs.

Jordan Raanan's take on the Giants: With Eli Manning and last year’s fourth-round pick Ryan Nassib on the roster, the Giants aren’t touching anyone near the top of this list. The most likely scenario is for Curtis Painter (or another veteran of the like) to be signed in order to compete with Nassib for the backup job in training camp.